George Washington Brown, editor of the Herald of Freedom newspaper, was one of seven free state leaders arrested on May 14, 1856 on charges of high treason and held prisoner by federal troops near Lecompton. Brown wrote to Israel B. Donaldson, the U.S. Marshal in Kansas, requesting that he terminate and settle a contract with his wife, Mrs. Lois Brown, for boarding the prisoners. Brown asked to board with fellow prisoners John Brown, Jr. and Henry H. Williams and sought to distance himself from Charles Robinson and his followers.